The big fish BMG rejected

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Two former Australian Idol divas may not
have won but they still ended up number one. Guy Blackman
reports.

If it were a race, it would be neck and neck. The Cosima vs.
Paulini poll on popular website www.opinion.com.au has Cosima De
Vito leading comfortably, with 58 per cent of the vote; but
then again, Paulini Curuenavuli's debut single Angel Eyes
spent four weeks at number one, while Cosima's When the War Is Over
managed only two.

The fact that either charted at all is perhaps an
embarrassment for BMG, the label with first dibs on all
Australian Idol contestants. BMG chose to pass on last
year's two best-loved Idol divas, freeing Paulini to ink a
deal with Sony, while Cosima, who made it to the last three on the
show before bowing out with strained vocal chords, took the novel
approach of doing it herself.

When she realised BMG wasn't going to sign her,
Cosima was understandably upset, but not crushed. "You hurt, you
cry, and you get down," she says. "But then you get back up
again."

Like Paulini, she hoped other record companies
would make an offer, and some did, but to Cosima their terms were
unacceptable. "The few that wanted to give me a deal wanted to
throw any album together, and put it out there before the next
Idol," she says. "So I took the chance to do the album that I've
always wanted to do."

This involved working with US superstar songwriter
Dianne Warren, who has penned soaring ballads for everyone from
Celine Dion to Roy Orbison. Warren's songs don't come cheap, so
Cosima and her parents pooled funds, mortgaged their house and
somehow raised almost $1 million. "My family and I have been
fighting for this for a very, very long time," she says. "We were
willing to take this chance."

In August, When the War Is Over became the
first independent single to debut at number one on the ARIA charts,
and Cosima knew her gamble had paid off. With this success, her
self-titled album will likely enjoy a similar result when it is
released this week - and having financed the record herself, Cosima
will see much more of the profits than any of her major-label
colleagues.

In hindsight, Cosima thinks she would be worse off
if BMG had picked up her contract. "They'd probably be making a lot
of decisions for me," she says. "And I wouldn't have worked with
Diane. That's the thing I think about most of all."

Paulini is also pleased with the way things have
turned out. "I think if I had been picked up by BMG, that would be
awesome, but I'm so proud of where I am right now," she says.

Angel Eyes did not have a smooth chart
entry, however, tangling awkwardly with Shannon Noll's Learn to
Fly on the week of its release. The announcement of a number
one debut for Paulini was soon retracted after a bulk purchase at
one Sydney store was discovered. Sales of Paulini's single were
reportedly 1119 copies ahead of Noll's on first count, then 109
behind once the count was revised, so that bulk purchase presumably
amounted to about 1200 CDs, sparking rumours of chart fixing within
the Sony camp. "It was great being at number one then at number
two," offers Paulini diplomatically. "I'm happy that Shann got
number one that first week too."

Paulini's album One Determined Heart also
made the top spot, but with its committee-picked selection of
genre-hopping covers it's hard not to see the album as the one
Cosima wanted to avoid making. According to Paulini, the album is a
reflection of her omnivorous tastes. "The record is very R&B
based, but it's all different styles. If I hear a good song, I love
to do my own personal take on it. I hope it shows a lot of my
personality."

There's also the question of whether Paulini has
enough grit to survive in such a cut-throat industry. Cosima makes
statements such as "I'm determined for the industry not to change
me, I'm determined to fight it," whereas Paulini says, "I'm a very
shy person, I really need to know a person before I can start
talking to them".

Cosima, however, is gracious enough not to admit to
any concern for the future career of her fellow Idol. "I'm
not worried about her at all," she says. "She's amazing, and I
think she's going to be around for a very, very long time."

Cosima's self-titled album is out now on her own label
CDV. Paulini's new single We Can Try is also out now.
Paulini plays Crown Showroom with Human Nature November
25-26